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SSI

May 14, 2013

The Social Security Administration (SSA) needs to focus on "program
integrity," a polite term for reducing fraud and payment errors, the
agency's inspector general told Congress last week.

Reducing improper payments is one of the challenges facing the next
SSA commissioner, Patrick O'Carroll, Jr., the agency's inspector
general, told the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security
on April 26.

In fiscal year 2012, the Social Security Administration reported
$4.7 billion in improper payments in the Supplemental Security Income
(SSI) program, a 9.2 percent improper payment rate. (SSI is funded by
general tax revenues, not payroll taxes. It helps elderly, blind,
and/or disabled people who are poor.)

May 02, 2013

On April 17, NSCLC sponsored a Capitol Hill briefing attended by some 60
Hill staff, government officials, as well as consumer and other
interest groups. At the briefing, the “SSI Restoration Act” (H.R.
1601) sponsored by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) was unveiled and described.
A distinguished panel spoke about the need for strengthening the
program.

A federal agency is calling on the president to raise the asset limit
imposed on people with disabilities receiving Supplemental Security
Income for the first time in decades.

In a letter to President Barack Obama this week, the chair of the
National Council on Disability, Jeff Rosen, said significant updates to
the SSI program are needed.

Currently, individuals receiving SSI benefits can have no more than
$2,000 to their name at any given time, a limit that’s been in place
since 1989. The council is asking the president to increase the amount
to $10,000 with allowances for the figure to continue to rise with
inflation. Additionally, the agency wants to see adjustments made to the
way that SSI benefits are impacted when an individual earns money from a
job, for example.

“SSI beneficiaries face the most severe levels of poverty of any
group of Social Security beneficiaries,” Rosen wrote on behalf of the
council, an independent federal agency charged with advising Congress
and the president on disability issues. “We urge you to incorporate
common-sense program reforms to SSI designed to improve beneficiary
well-being and enhance the ability of SSI beneficiaries to participate
in the workforce.”

April 30, 2013

Last week, you released your FY14 budget proposal outlining your
vision for federal spending in the next fiscal year as well as your most
recent offer to Speaker Boehner to achieve additional deficit reduction
in a balanced fashion. NCD appreciates the need for deficit reduction
efforts and looks forward to providing assistance to help ensure that
such efforts do not further harm low-income populations and people with
disabilities, who have already borne the brunt of past reductions in
federal spending. It is because of this commitment that I communicate
the importance of including in any further deficit reduction
conversation, measures to advance the economic well-being of
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries. SSI beneficiaries face
the most severe levels of poverty of any group of Social Security
beneficiaries. In addition, due to the asset limits as part of the
program, SSI beneficiaries are prohibited from saving more than
$2,000 in total, thus denying them the opportunity to take steps to move
out of poverty and prepare to enter the workforce.

While we were pleased to see that SSI beneficiaries were exempted
from the proposed "Chained CPI" index, we believe additional measures
are needed to protect this population, particularly as cuts to federal
spending in current law pose grave threats to low-income Americans with
disabilities. We urge you to incorporate common-sense program reforms to
SSI designed to improve beneficiary well-being and enhance the ability
of SSI beneficiaries to participate in the workforce. We encourage
consideration of the policy issues below for inclusion in any future
deficit reduction effort:

Raise the SSI asset limit, currently set at $2,000 since 1989, to $10,000 and index it to inflation going forward;

Raise the income offsets for SSI beneficiaries and index them to inflation going forward;

Eliminate asset limits for participants in work incentive programs,
such as 1619b and the Medicaid Buy-In, who are accessing SSI primarily
for the purposes of receiving Medicaid benefits rather than utilizing
the program for income support;

Establish a National Medicaid Buy-In program to allow for greater
workforce mobility for working people with disabilities who may wish to
change jobs across state lines;

April 25, 2013

What is the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program? Who qualifies
for SSI benefits? What are the eligibility rules of the program? And how
are SSI benefits the same as and different from other benefits from the
Social Security Administration? We will answer these questions and
explain what you need to know to be more informed and effective in
assisting SSI recipients.

Presenters are Kate Lang, Staff Attorney and Gerald McIntyre, Directing Attorney of the National Senior Citizens Law Center.

Additional
sponsorship for this Webinar is provided by a grant from the
Administration on Aging/Administration for Community Living . This
webinar is part of a series of National Elder Rights Training Project
webinars for the National Legal Resource Center.

There is no charge for this webinar.
All time listings are in Eastern Standard Time.
If you have any questions email trainings@nclc.org

March 28, 2013

Special Needs Trusts are important estate planning tools which should be
considered by all families where a member of the family is receiving,
or may be eligible to receive, Medical Assistance (also known as MA or
Medicaid), Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and/or Mental Health and
Mental Retardation (MH/MR) benefits. A Special Needs Trust allows the
disabled person to continue to receive the above benefits, whereas if
the disabled person were to own the assets that are in the trust
outright in his or her individual name, such benefits would be taken
away (if the disabled person was already receiving the benefits) or the
disabled person would not be eligible to receive the benefits in the
first place (if the disabled person applied for the benefits while
already owning assets in excess of a specific amount allowed under the
law).

January 22, 2013

The payment of the state supplement to SSI is sent on a QUARTERLY basis by the Michigan government to recipients at the "Household of Another" and the "Sharing/Independent" rates. Benefit payment checks are mailed during the months of: March, June, September and December. For persons receiving ONLY an SSI supplement amount due to the presence of Social Security Disability benefits and/or earned income, the state supplement will NOT be paid! Affected individuals must now apply separately for Medicaid at a local Michigan Department of Human Services (“DHS”) office.

December 13, 2012

Many veteran parents would say that the most difficult part of having a
child with a disability is dealing with "the system". Developed in the
1950's in order to give workers who had work-related injuries temporary
government support until they could get back on the job, the system of
supports that now allows people with disabilities to live in their
communities is an antiquated patchwork of funding streams and programs
that actually PROHIBITS beneficiaries from working and saving. Social Security Income (SSI) is the gateway to this system of public supports. Medicaid is the delivery vehicle. It
was never designed to support impoverished elderly people with
dementia, poor single mothers, children with Autism and adults with
developmental disabilities all in one program. Once a young adult like
my son turns 21, he exits the youth system and must apply for SSI---a
means-tested program with income and asset limits--which will force him
into poverty for the rest of his life. When Julian was born and we
updated our will, we actually had to disinherit him so that he wouldn't
accumulate assets and jeopardize his adult Medicaid eligibility. He
cannot have assets totaling more than $2,000 over his lifetime. He can't
receive cash birthday or bar mitzvah gifts or inheritance from his
loved ones. In the current system, he'll need Medicaid in order to be
insured medically but he'll also need it to get housing, job coaching,
and aides to help him live independently.

December 06, 2012

The Social Security disability program, which is funded by workers'
payroll deductions, is intended to help people who get sick or injured
and no longer can work.

As the nation ages and effects of the
recession linger, millions are applying for disability benefits, and
Social Security can't work through the claims fast enough.

Pressure
is building on the system because aging Baby Boomers, many still in the
workforce, are more prone to injury as they get older. The recession
also caused many who were hanging on to jobs despite chronic medical
issues to apply for benefits when they lost those jobs.

Most
applicants are rejected in their initial written request because they
fail to supply enough evidence of a disability. After two rejections,
their next step is an appeal before a judge. Applicants, on average, now
wait 10 and one-half months in Arizona for those hearings. Judicial
approval rates vary greatly across both the state and nation.